Catching Fire: The End of District Twelve
by Just Stormy
Summary: The elimination of District 12 told from five different perspectives.


The evening was filled with anticipation as Madge Undersee watched with regrettable anticipation at her friend's next move. Her mother Was trying to run away a headache with no success as she too watched with the same enthusiasm. Madge had gone through the fear of loosing a friend once, and she was surprised that she's made it this far again. Watching Katniss go through all these horrible things a second time gave Madge a great pain in her heart.

Her attention was turned back to the television when her mother gasped suddenly. Everything happened so fast that Madge almost missed it. She felt completely numb. What she had seen just a few seconds earlier had caused her sharply gasp and stop breathing all together. Her mother clenched the arm of the sofa with so much force she punctured the pleather with her self manicured nails. She couldn't hear her father in his study, but was sure that he had dropped everything he was doing. She had watched Katniss load her arrow and aim for a person, but at the last minute she aimed in the opposite direction and the whole field exploded. That's when the television shut off.

"She's doomed us all. . ." Her mother whispered. "The Capitol would not stand for this kind of breach. They can't trust District 12 anymore. . ."

Then stark cold realization seeped through every bone, muscle, and hair strand on Madge's body. She was seated on the couch with her mother still watching the screen of the television. The electricity of her house cut off and her mother grasped onto her hand with a grip so fierce Madge felt every emotion her mother was feeling as well as her own.

Fear. Desperation. Hopelessness.

All the fight swept out of her body at once when her father, the mayor of the now doomed District 12, staggered down the stairs with a blank look on his face. Mayor Undersee sunk down onto the couch on the other side of Madge and grabbed her hand as well. The small family sat in silence for exactly one minute before Mrs. Undersee started to sob. Mayor Undersee got up slowly and walked over to Mrs. Undersee's side of the couch, sat on the arm of the sofa, and wrapped himself around his hysterical wife with the hope of calming her.

Madge showed no emotion. She stared blankly at the floor and counted her breath intakes.

1

Out.

2

Out.

3

Out.

Madge slowly turned her head to look outside the living room window to view the sure chaos that was about to unfold. But nothing happened. Another minute later a loud knock was heard through the house. Madge's head snapped from the window to the door, then back to her parents who were now both weeping uncontrollably. Madge got up cautiously and walked to the door. She wasn't tall enough to see through the peep hole so she look through the window beside the door to see who was there.

Madge's eyes widened a great deal and she quickly opened the door.

"Gale?" Said person was standing hunched over with a little girl clinging to his trousers. He gave her an impatient look and huffed a big breath.

"Look we don't have a lot of time. Are you guys coming with or what?" He said hastily. Madge shot him a questioning look. He rolled his eyes and shifted the bag on his shoulders.

"Coming where?" Madge asked.

"Out of here. Listen, you can stay and die with this district or you can run with us." Gale said urgently. Madge sensed that this would be their last chance for her to be able to make it out. The last chance to live. She shot a glance back at her weeping parents, and then back to Gale. He gave her another impatient stare and the little girl clinging to him whined quietly.

"Last chance, Undersee."

Madge swallowed the lump in her throat and stepped back from the door.

"You go. My parents are not in any condition to run from anything, and I won't leave them behind." Madge said casting her gaze downward. She caught another glimpse of the girl looking worried. Her tear stained face pinched with fear.

"You sure?"

Madge nodded. She was about to close the door when she suddenly thought of something.

"If Katniss somehow manages to stay alive and you see her again, don't tell her." She said. "Now leave quickly. The raids will start soon."

Gale nodded, picked up the little girl, and bolted out of sight. Madge slowly closed the door from the world and walked back to the couch. He father reached out to her and she embraced him and her mother. For a while they stayed like that. It wasn't until the ground started shaking did Madge's emotions finally kick in. Tears spilled from her eyes and her breathing got heavy. She tried to swallow the lump of fear in her throat, but it was no use.

She clung to her parents tighter than she even had in her short sixteen years. Two pairs of arms clung to her as well, pulling the family closer together. Shared tears and sounds of despair were drowned out soon but the sound of bomb and catching fire. Screams could be hear throughout the burning land mixed in with other noises of crashes and explosions.

Madge's thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly wondered if Gale and the little girl had made it out before the bombings started. The second she thought that, the room was filled with a white light and a blazing heat. Madge had heard her mother scream out in agony, and then she heard nothing. Only felt the searing blaze run all over her body. Her lungs filled with the smoke of her own burning flesh. She must have coughed or breathed in too much because the fire was suddenly inside of her as well. She couldn't make coherent thought, but that last thing that really filled her mind was another sudden light and then everything, the searing pain all over and inside her body, the screams of her and her mother, ceased.


End file.
